The Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ has released its three-yearly update on the state of the environment. Our environment 2025 collates key findings and data across land, freshwater, marine, climate and atmosphere, and air.
The report reveals increasing pressures on our environment and paints a particularly bleak picture for our biodiversity, with indigenous species continuing to decline at an alarming rate.
WWF-New Zealand’s CEO, Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, says the figures contained in the report are deeply concerning - but not altogether surprising, as they mirror WWF’s recent Living Planet Report which shows that globally we are reaching dangerous tipping points for wildlife.
“This is a code red for nature. At a time when we need to be doubling down on protecting and restoring nature, New Zealand’s Coalition Government is stripping away the last few environmental protections we have in place, and prioritising misguided extractive economics - including the extraction of more fossil fuels - at the expense of our natural world and the wellbeing of future generations.
“Ministers are preparing to chuck parts of the Wildlife Act in the shredder to appease developers, push through resource management reforms that prioritise individual property rights over environmental protections and the concerns of local communities, and are bizarrely continuing to court sunset industries like coal mining.
“It’s absolutely wild to me that when nature is so central to our national identity and economy this Government is so willing to sacrifice the continued survival of New Zealand’s threatened wildlife species at the altar of short-term growth.”
Among the findings in the report that are cause for concern, Our environment 2025 confirms fishing bycatch continues to contribute to the population decline and extinction risk of some of our most threatened protected species, such as Hector’s dolphin, seabirds and protected corals.
What’s more, between two and 34 captures of protected sea turtles were reported each year between 2007/08 and 2019/20, while a staggering 58 were reported in 2020/21 - including 50 leatherback turtles.
“New Zealand has one of the planet’s largest ocean territories, but we protect less than one percent of it - and we’re falling wildly out of step with the rest of the world. We need to be doing much much more to protect our marine wildlife and habitats before it’s too late,” says Kingdon-Bebb.
WWF-New Zealand’s recent economic assessment with EY New Zealand revealed that investing in the protection and restoration of nature could save Aotearoa New Zealand more than $270 billion over the next 50 years.
“It’s clear that investing in nature makes economic sense. Protecting our country from the worst impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change is essential for preserving our global ‘clean and green’ brand and ensuring our tourism sector and primary industries continue to thrive.
“New Zealand already has the highest species extinction rate in the world and this report is just further confirmation that nature in Aotearoa is in trouble.
“The future is in our hands and we have the power to change course. But to do that we need to stop pillaging our natural environment in the name of short-term profit.”